Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket

Big scale consumption culture has overtaken practically all the spheres of our life and territories available. One of the specific typologies incubated during mid-20th Century is the hypermarket, specific and complex device of capital accumulation – where collective freedom disappears – defined by a...

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Main Author: Kim Courrèges
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad San Sebastian 2021-04-01
Series:Materia Arquitectura
Subjects:
Online Access:http://materiaarquitectura.com/index.php/MA/article/view/436
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author Kim Courrèges
author_facet Kim Courrèges
author_sort Kim Courrèges
collection DOAJ
description Big scale consumption culture has overtaken practically all the spheres of our life and territories available. One of the specific typologies incubated during mid-20th Century is the hypermarket, specific and complex device of capital accumulation – where collective freedom disappears – defined by a generic and flexible structure in which we can only exist as individual consumers. In the last few years, the hypermarket model, temple of agribusiness and mass production, started to suffer from the changes in consumer’s habits: the development of online market and the shift towards customization – or better said, the will to come back to a more human way of consuming – have put in check the overscale offer provided by these retail structures. Architecture has a lot to say within these new frame and conditions. As a form of common strategic knowledge, it can actually contribute in the process of reforming obsolescent and conventional models with a clear agenda. The hypermarket is just one of the models that can be subject to correction and transformation in the context of the necessary commonalization of the world.
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spelling doaj.art-0b171ede44e54783b4a98a739eeebb762023-12-01T03:10:27ZengUniversidad San SebastianMateria Arquitectura0718-70332735-75032021-04-011911211510.56255/ma.v0i19.436427Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the HypermarketKim CourrègesBig scale consumption culture has overtaken practically all the spheres of our life and territories available. One of the specific typologies incubated during mid-20th Century is the hypermarket, specific and complex device of capital accumulation – where collective freedom disappears – defined by a generic and flexible structure in which we can only exist as individual consumers. In the last few years, the hypermarket model, temple of agribusiness and mass production, started to suffer from the changes in consumer’s habits: the development of online market and the shift towards customization – or better said, the will to come back to a more human way of consuming – have put in check the overscale offer provided by these retail structures. Architecture has a lot to say within these new frame and conditions. As a form of common strategic knowledge, it can actually contribute in the process of reforming obsolescent and conventional models with a clear agenda. The hypermarket is just one of the models that can be subject to correction and transformation in the context of the necessary commonalization of the world.http://materiaarquitectura.com/index.php/MA/article/view/436collective spacecommonsconsumptionretail architectureneoliberalism
spellingShingle Kim Courrèges
Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket
Materia Arquitectura
collective space
commons
consumption
retail architecture
neoliberalism
title Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket
title_full Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket
title_fullStr Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket
title_full_unstemmed Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket
title_short Tickling the Giant: Restructuring the Hypermarket
title_sort tickling the giant restructuring the hypermarket
topic collective space
commons
consumption
retail architecture
neoliberalism
url http://materiaarquitectura.com/index.php/MA/article/view/436
work_keys_str_mv AT kimcourreges ticklingthegiantrestructuringthehypermarket